Test-Optional Isn’t Looking So Good
Few high school students have ever looked at a Saturday morning SAT or ACT and thought, “This is exactly how I want to spend my weekend.” But while standardized tests may be unpopular with teenagers, it is the children who are wrong—exams are one of the few remaining measures colleges can use to compare students from different schools and backgrounds.
The University of Wisconsin System, however, will continue to allow prospective students to apply without them. The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has extended its suspension of the ACT and SAT requirement through the 2027-28 academic year, even as research continues to point to the usefulness of standardized tests in predicting college success. But while standardized tests may be unpopular with teenagers, it is the children who are wrong.
It’s easy to see why. The tests are stressful, and the push to drop them began with concerns that they were biased against minority students. By dropping the requirement, the University of Wisconsin may hope to gain a competitive edge by attracting applicants who prefer not to submit SAT or ACT scores. But the research keeps pointing the other way. A University of California task force, cited in a later Dartmouth report, found that test scores line up more closely with college success than high school GPAs do, and grade inflation is the obvious suspect. Paired with grades, scores give a much fuller picture.
Class rank doesn’t help much either, since it can’t be compared across different high schools. Standardized tests can. A test score means the same thing no matter which high school the student came from, which is more than anyone can say for a GPA. It’s one number universities can compare across every high school.
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